Short Essay On Harriet Tubman

Civil War Project

Harriet Tubman's official birth name was Araminta Harriet Ross. She was born in 1820 in Bucktown, Md. Tubman had 11 other siblings, all of them belonging to a slave couple.Harriet started working at seven years old, doing housework, and when she got older, she became a field hand. She had physical violence in her daily life. Many of the violence she suffered was permanent physical injuries. She was struck on the head by a slave overseer. After the blow, she kept on falling asleep suddenly for the rest of her life. She also had intense dream states, which she classified as religious endeavors.

At the age of 19, she was as strong as the men that she worked with. In 1844, she married a free African American whose name was John Tubman. In 1849, she left John, for fear of being sold farther to the South. When she escaped, the Underground Railroad helped her. In Philadelphia, Pa., and later at Cape May, N.J., Harriet worked as a maid in both hotels and in clubs. In December 1850, she had enough money to go back to the South to free other slaves. She returned for her husband in 1851, but he had remarried to another woman.

Harriet worked very close with the Underground Railroad, and freed her parents and most of her sisters and brothers. She went south, crossing the
In the troop, Harriet was the only African American. Their troop was stationed at Fort Monroe, Virginia, on the western shore on Chesapeake Bay. Tubman's duty at Fort Monroe was unrelated to any type of military operation. There were many fugitives, or “contrabands”, that mostly came with families and small children. These fugitives were put to work as manual laborers, building things such as roads and dikes. They were not paid at all. Women were expected to cook and do the laundry. Harriet Tubman became their assistant, and washed clothes, cooked, and worked as a